The Freeman Air and Space Institute (FASI), in association with the Military Aviation Authority are pleased to host ‘Regulation & advancement: The MAA’s role in Defence’s uncrewed ambitions’. 

This online webinar discussion will explore the contemporary challenges and operational growth within the Military Aviation Authority, highlighting both successes and lessons learnt with the evolving use of drones and uncrewed systems in modern warfare.

Set to take place online on Friday 13 February from 10:00 - 11:00 GMT, the webinar will welcome Air Vice-Marshal Peter Squires, Director of the MAA, Captain Joe Dransfield, former Deputy Head of Operations at the MAA, and Commander Tony Sherwin, Royal Navy - Joint Uncrewed Air System Test & Evaluation Squadron. 

Dr Sophy Antrobus, Co-Director and Senior Research Fellow at the Freeman Air and Space Institute is set to chair the discussion.

Together, they will explore how the MAA have shaped the regulatory framework for Uncrewed Air Systems (UAS) across Defence for over a decade. The conversation will focus on improvements achieved within recent years, whilst also noting the delicate balance between flexibility and safety regulation.

As UAS take on an increasingly prominent role in military operations around the world, the MAA has continuously evolved its approach, realising the need to be increasingly responsive to dynamic operating needs.

The panel will examine these needs, further evaluating the risk appetite and regulation realities the MAA deal with on a daily basis, and how this has influenced and created contemporary challenges in a post SDR world.

Register here: Webinar Registration - Zoom

Meet the speakers:

Air Vice-Marshal P J M Squires OBE MA BEng (Hons), Director, Military Aviation Authority

Air Vice-Marshal Peter Squires was appointed Director of the Military Aviation (MAA) in April 2025. The MAA is responsible for regulating all Defence aviation activity, with a mission to enhance operational capability through modern, innovative air safety regulations and practices.

Prior to this role, AVM Squires served for three years as the Administrator of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and Commander British Forces Cyprus. In this unique position - governing the only UK Overseas Territory overseen by the Ministry of Defence - he was directly accountable to Secretary of State for Defence and The Sovereign. His leadership ensured the safe and effective governance of the Territory, whilst delivering and enabling multi-domain operations across three continents during a period of heightened regional volatility.

Educated at Warwick School and later at the University of Southampton, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics & Astronautics. He joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot in 1989. His professional military education includes the UK Advanced Staff Course (earning a Masters in Defence Studies from Kings College London), the Royal College of Defence Studies, the UK-US Rising Leaders Programme, the Windsor Leadership Trust and the NATO General and Flag Officers’ Course.

Captain Joe Dransfield, Royal Navy

Joe joined the Royal Navy in 1998. He spent the first 15 years serving as a Lynx Observer deploying globally on numerous operations.

His second stage career has included tours as a planning instructor with NATO, as a military professor at the US Naval War College, as Force Commander of the Wildcat Maritime Force and as the Deputy Commander of a US led multi-national task force in the Pacific.

He joined the Military Aviation Authority in March 24, taking responsibility for the team that provides regulatory assurance for all of UK Defence’s fixed wing, rotary wing, uncrewed and parachuting activity. He has a specific responsibility for approval of all uncrewed air systems under 25Kgs across Defence.

Commander Tony Sherwin, Royal Navy

Cdr Sherwin joined the RN as an Observer in January 2003 after reading Natural Sciences Cambridge University. Flying training on Sea King V was followed by two enjoyable and very rewarding tours in the Search and Rescue role, initially at RNAS Culdrose and then Gannet SAR Flight on the west coast of Scotland. After a spell as an instructor with 750 NAS teaching navigation and radar techniques on the Jetstream T2, Cdr Sherwin converted to Merlin MK 1 and saw operational deployments to the middle east as well as embarkations in HMS Illustrious.

Selected for Aerosystems Course in 2015 Sherwin graduated with Distinction and went on to lead the Avionics team on the Merlin Mk 3 marinization programme within the Air Test and Evaluation Centre at Boscombe down. He is one of a small number of military aircrew to have flown every mark of Merlin.

Cdr Sherwin took command of 744 NAS in March 2023 and has led the transformation of the Squadron to become the Joint UAS TES. Part of the UK’s Air and Space Warfare centre, the JUAS TES delivers trials to develop drone capabilities for all three services as well as other specialist users.

Dr Sophy Antrobus, Co-Director, Freeman Air and Space Institute

Dr Sophy Antrobus researches contemporary air power in the context of the institutional, cultural and organisational barriers to innovation and effectiveness in modern air forces, in particular the Royal Air Force. She joined the Freeman Air and Space Institute from Portsmouth Business School at the University of Portsmouth where she was a Teaching Fellow in Strategic Studies. She completed her PhD at the University of Exeter in 2019. Her thesis researched the early politics of air power and networks in Whitehall in the inter-war years.

Prior to her PhD, Sophy served in the Royal Air Force for twenty years including in Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour with the Royal Navy. Sophy is a Visiting Fellow with the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre and a member of the RAF Museum Research Advisory Board. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.